Highlights

Built 150 years ago and removed 50 years ago, Fitzgerald Fountain will spring back to life near Metro Cinema

With the NoC in place, the BMC has floated tenders for restoring the heritage fountain

Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray to be credited for the initiative

With traffic police NOC, iconic structure’s restoration near original site clears last hurdle.

About 150 years after it was built and half a century after it was unceremoniously removed from its original spot, the Fitzgerald Fountain will soon spring back to life near Metro Cinema. Over a year after the plan was first mooted, the traffic police has finally given a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for re-installing the fountain at Metro junction. The traffic police issued the NOC recently and the BMC has decided to place the fountain near the statue of freedom fighter Vasudev Balwant Phadke at the junction.

With the NoC in place, the BMC has floated tenders for restoring the heritage fountain, and work is expected to begin in a month’s time. “We have finally got the traffic police’s NOC and have already floated the tenders.

The fountain will not be placed at its exact original location due to objections from the traffic police but we will place it at another end of the junction. This was the closest we could get to the fountain’s original location,” said a senior civic official.

The fountain and its lamp-post, erected in 1867, were one of the several relics of the British colonial era that were removed as a part of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement in the 1960s.

“We had got clearance from the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee last year. However, we were awaiting clearance from the traffic police. They were not keen to allow the fountain at the centre of the junction but have now given an NOC for it to be installed at one of the corners. It was placed at the exact geometric centre in the 1960s,” said a senior civic official. The BMC will spend around Rs 1.7 crore for the restoration project.

We will restore the entire function at Byculla and then bring it here. At the site, we will relay the foundation. It will take about a year to get the fountain back.-A senior civic official

Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray, whose party rules the BMC, can be credited for the initiative to restore the structure. He had also taken up the matter with several top BMC officials, a senior Sena leader said.

The Fitzgerald Fountain, which has a twin in Britain’s North Hampton, is currently cooling its heels in the backyard of Byculla’s Bhau Daji Lad museum – placed there by the corporation after it was removed from Metro Cinema’s busy junction. The fountain bears the engraving: In honour of the right honourable Sir Seymour Fitzgerald KCSI — the Governor of Bombay — by the Esplanade committee. Fitzgerald governed erstwhile Bombay presidency in the 1800s.

The cast iron structure with a gas lamp and four fountains stands 35 feet high. The structure bears striking similarity to another fountain location in Market Square, Northampton, England which was erected in 1863 to commemorate the marriage of Prince Albert to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The fountain was 45 feet high and 19 feet wide. However the fountain in Northampton was also removed in the 1960s when local authorities said it was unsafe.

Noted conversation architect Pankaj Joshi of the Urban Development Research Institute (UDRI) is consulting the BMC on the restoration project. BMC officials said that the restoration of the fountain was part of heritage structure restoration in South Mumbai led by Additional Municipal Commissioner Idez Kundan. Kundan has drawn out a plan to restore heritage structures and revive heritage areas in South Mumbai.

Apart from the Fitzgerald Fountain, the Muljee Jetha Fountain at the corner of Mint Road at Fort, Bomanji Hormasji Wadia Clock Towers at Perin Nariman Street and Horniman Circle Pyau, the Cooperage Bandstand and the Kothari Pyau near the GPO Kabutarkhana are some of the other structures that are being restored.

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